Nolan's job changes, but the rest sounds the same

They don't know what they're getting into in Denver. But all of us know.

Mike Nolan's arrival as defensive coordinator has touched off some discussion of what kind of defense the Broncos will run. New head coach Josh McDaniels comes from a 3-4 tradition (though he's an offensive coach anyway). Nolan, of course, likes the 3-4 too. But there's some concern about whether the Broncos have the right personnel, and that has led to talk like this from player personnel director Jim Goodman: "(McDaniels) may want to do a hybrid type thing."

Oh God, for the sake of Denver fans' sanity, please let him be talking about a Prius.

The hybrid, of course, is the sometimes 4-3, sometimes 3-4, never effective defense Nolan employed to ride the team into the ground for the first half of 2008. If they're truly fortunate, Denver fans will also get to enjoy the Big Sub package, the underutilization of Manny Lawson-type playmakers and the five-minute circular answers about how the players are responsible for all the breakdowns because the scheme is just fine except for the three or four times a game it isn't.

Nolan told the Denver Post, "We still have to go through the evaluation process with our own players, and then see who's going to be out there in the free-agent market, what the draft looks like. We have a ways to go before we make that decision." Now doesn't that just sound like the off-season version of I haven't looked at the game film yet ...

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More fun regarding Nolan: The Broncos have a linebacker who revived his career in 2008, becoming a regular starter for the first time since early in 2005. That player was Jamie Winborn. In 2005, the 49ers traded him, making him the first casualty of the Mike Nolan There's A New Sheriff In Town regime.

How will that relationship work now that Nolan isn't the sheriff but is Deputy Barney Fife instead?